Nelson Mandela's health problems

Nelson Mandela, 94, is in a "critical" condition in hospital. He has suffered numerous health problems over the years:

Mandela revisits his prison cell on Robben Island, where he spent eighteen of his twenty-seven years in prison.Photo: Getty Images / Jurgen Schadeberg

By AFP

3:27AM BST 24 Jun 2013

Lungs

While serving his 27-year prison term, Mandela was diagnosed with early stage tuberculosis in 1988 after being admitted to hospital in Stellenbosch near Cape Town with a bad cough and weakness and having complained of dampness in his cell.

Two litres of fluid were drained from his chest and he spent six weeks recuperating in the hospital before being transferred to a private clinic near his mainland Cape Town prison where he was the facility's first black patient.

"When the report came back from hospital they indicated that fortunately we sent the specimen before there were holes in the lung," he said in 2004. "I underwent treatment and was completely cured after four months.

In January 2011, Mandela set the nation on edge when he was hospitalised for two nights with an unnamed acute respiratory infection at the age of 92.